Beach Etiquette

OK, here's a question for you....why is it that people love to enter your personal space...like at the beach??

So we're sitting on the beach in Ocean City, NJ early one morning recently. The lifeguards are not set up yet and there are only a few folks scattered about the beach. The tide is on it's way out, so the beach will just be getting bigger as the day goes on. As time passes we watch the lifeguards come to the beach. They drop their gear, drag the lifeguard stand to the water's edge, and position the boat close by it. As it gets later more and more people start showing up, but the beach is still by no means full or even getting full.

Suddenly we're broken out of our reading or dozing by the sound of commotion and look up (or wake up) and discover that a large group of folks with several kids has decided to take up residence for the day 5 feet to our left! Now, when the next closest person is at least 20 feet away from us, why does this family group decide to plop right next to us???

Are they the same folks who fill their plates to overflowing at the all you can eat buffet even though you can go back as many times as you want? Are they the bozos who stop smack dab in the middle of the grocery store aisle and then walk 10 feet further to read the label of a product they ultimately won't buy? Is there a group of people who's task in life is to annoy the rest of us...and are they on their summer vacation in Ocean City?

No sooner are the adults unfolding chairs and opening umbrellas then the kids start digging and throwing sand close to 20 feet in all directions! Do the parents say anything? Do they even notice?? Of course not! Why is it these people always seem to find us? Be it the screaming kid at the beach, the baby who disrupts everyone's dinner in the the restaurant, or the loud overbearing person who always gets waited on before you just because he's such a pain, they seem to be more and more a part of our life.

Come on folks...how bout we all work together?? Lets try to remember the Golden Rule (you do remember hearing that, right? Do unto others, etc) and realize that your actions in this world impact many others. How about we all look around before we act and try to give a damn about someone other than ourselves. I know...dream on, right? Well, I can ask, no?